Simulation of pedestrian crowds' evacuation in a huge transit terminal subway station

As modernized urban rail transportation, subways are playing an important role in transiting large passenger flows. Passengers are in high density within the subway during rush hours. The casualty and injury will be tremendous if an accident occurs, such as a fire. Hence, enough attention should be paid on pedestrian crowds' evacuation in a subway. In this paper, simulation of the process of pedestrian crowds' evacuation from a huge transit terminal subway station is conducted. The evacuation process in different cases is conducted by using an agent-based model. Effects of occupant density, exit width and automatic fare gates on evacuation time are studied in detail. It is found that, with the increase of the occupant density, the evacuation efficiency would decline. There is a linear relationship between occupant density and evacuation time. Different occupant densities correspond to different critical exit widths. However, the existence of the automatic fare gates has little effect on evacuation time and tendency. The current results of this study will be helpful in guiding evacuation designs of huge underground spaces. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.